Baking for Tomorrow!

Georgia O’Keefe and the Encantada Resort

Tom and Margie’s trip to New Mexico: Georgia O’Keefe and the Encantada Resorta view from the bar at Encantado
On a Monday we visited the Georgia O’Keefe museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was enlightening. She was such and interesting painter. She had a photographic eye to her art. I could see where she had framed the work in her mind like she was looking through a viewfinder of a camera. It figures though, she was married to one of the best photographers of our time. Margie and I were inspired by the art and by a film that tells of Ms. O’Keefe’s life. It mentioned that she lived about 50 miles north of Santa Fe in Abiquiui. We planned to visit there the following day. We were especially excited about our dinner that night. It was at the Encantada Resort just north of town. The restaurant is called Terra. When we arrived at just after 6:00pm, the sun was about to set. We headed directly for the bar where we ordered a drink and got ready for a beautiful sunset. We were not disappointed. As I was cruising around the hotel before a restroom break, I stopped by the concierge office to ask for some directions. I came across a man named Jonathan Mason. I asked him about Abiquiui and it’s neighboring town, Ghost Ranch. He was inspired! We talked about the beauty of the area what great photographic possibilities they held. All this time, Margie was in the bar enjoying the sunset. When I came back from the restroom, I found Jonathan talking with Margie over a map. He had copied a detailed map complete with colored lines to get us up to Ghost Ranch. What a great service he provided for us. This was just the beginning of the great service at Encantada.

We were invited to go to our table. The second we sat down, we felt very welcome and comfortable. I can’t tell you how, but you just know sometimes. Perhaps it was the drink before dinner. Looking at the menu, we had a hard time deciding on what to order. Soon the sommelier came by to see about some wine for dinner. He introduced himself as Matthew. He had a long ponytail and was very thin. I told him I was thinking about a pork dish so that wine selection may be tricky. He got right to work on helping find a wine. He suggested a half bottle of a shiraz that was somewhat out of my price range. He didn’t push but suggested something else. I ordered a dish called three little pigs. It was pork tenderloin in an adobo sauce, a pork cheek casuela, and pork belly in an edamame sauce. All of the elements were delicious but the pork belly was the best of all. Margie ordered a 4 course prefixe dinner. It included a grilled sea scallop, lobster bisque and a small piece of prime fillet of beef. She and I enjoyed all the courses. Along the way, Matthew stopped by to talk. We talked wine and food for a while and then he said, “Wait, I’ll be right back!” He returned with more wine to go with the food. He just wanted to share. What a great sommelier.

Margie’s dessert was included but mine was not. She ordered a trio of sorbets. I, on the other hand almost never order dessert. I did notice that was a dish called “doughnuts and coffee”. It consisted of fried brioche balls rolled in cinnamon sugar served with coffee ice cream. It was delicious. If you want to sell me dessert, make sure to have some yeast doughs on the menu. While we were enjoying dessert, Matthew came by one more time with a dessert wine called Tokaji. I had had it a long time ago at a wine tasting. It went perfectly with my doughnuts and coffee.

For the quality of the food and service, the price was quite reasonable. We would go back in an instant which is what we did the next day. After visiting Ghost Ranch with Jonathan’s directions, we stopped by Encantada to thank him for such a great time. He even gave us an impromptu tour of the hotel and its casitas. Terra will be on our list of restaurants to return to for a long time.